The Path of the Mystic, Chapter #4
Chapter title: Reality is always fragile
6 May 1986 am in Punta Del Este, Uruguay
Times of disaster make you aware of the reality as it is. It is always fragile; everybody is always in danger. Just in ordinary times you are fast asleep, so you don’t see it: you go on dreaming, imagining beautiful things for the coming days, for the future. But in moments when danger is imminent then suddenly you become aware that there may be no future, no tomorrow, that this is the only moment you have got.
So times of disaster are very revealing. They don’t bring anything new into the world; they simply make you aware of the world as it is — they wake you up. If you don’t understand this, you can go mad; if you understand this, you can become awakened.
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It depends on you how you use the moment: you can panic, you can go mad, you can break down in fear, in tears. But that is not going to help your family or your friends or your beloved. It is not going to help you either.
This disaster in Russia has simply created a situation in which those who have a little intelligence can start devoting more and more of their time to meditation, because tomorrow is really uncertain. It has always been uncertain, but now it is more uncertain than ever.
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But you can use this as a great moment.
We are all always in danger.
You know the old saying: “Never send to ask for whom the bell tolls. It always tolls for thee.” When somebody dies, the church bell informs the whole village. But never send anybody to ask for whom the bell tolls; it always tolls for thee. Whoever may have died right now… each death is your death, because each death is a reminder that you are not going to be here forever. Each death is an opportunity to be awake. Before death comes use the opportunity of life to attain something which is beyond death.
It is pointless to be worried because you will be simply missing this moment and you won’t help anybody. And it is not that only your parents and your friends, your beloved, are in danger: the whole world is in danger. It is only a question… Somebody is in danger today, somebody else will be in danger tomorrow — but the danger is there. So learn the secret of how to transcend the danger.
The secret is, start living more fully, more totally. Be more alert so that you can find within yourself something that is unreachable by death. That is the only shelter, the only security, the only safety. And if you want to help your friends and family, let them become aware of this secret.
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There are going to be disasters. This is just the beginning. Use the opportunity to be awake — that’s all you can do. There is nothing else that you can do.
And tell your friends to use the moment for meditation, because the disaster that has happened in the nuclear plant in Chernobyl near Kiev is not something that happens and is finished. Its effects will linger for decades
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The danger is more, but as life is itself always in the grip of death, it is a good opportunity to be aware. Otherwise your death comes without any pre-information: suddenly it comes and you don’t have even a single moment. And even in cases where death is certain — in cancer or in AIDS — the doctors, the family, the friends, everybody tries to hide the fact that it is so close… with good intentions, but good intentions won’t do. They are harming the person.
The person should be made aware: “Your death is going to come within one month. You don’t have any more life, so this month do the best thing that can give you a taste of immortality.” Then when you die there is no sadness, no misery — you simply move from this body into another body, or if you become enlightened… A sudden awareness of death can make you enlightened.
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So it is only a question of how to use everything — whatever it is. Use it rightly. The disaster is great, the danger is great, but great is the opportunity too.